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Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

[If you're interested in reading this book, leave a comment by Friday, August 28, 2009, and my copy could be yours. I'll have my five-year-old daughter pick the winning commenter number. I'll announce the winner here on Saturday, August 29.]

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater--think lyrical, cool (as in chilly) writing style, werewolf/human girl love obsession, and a teenage heroine emotionally estranged from her parents (of course). The take on the werewolf is very unique, and I enjoyed how the changes are gradual and also related to temperature. I don't want to give away too much on that.

Grace is a teenage girl who was saved from the pack of wolves living in the woods behind her house by one particular wolf when she was a child [see the excerpt below]. Sam is werewolf; he spends winters as a wolf, watching Grace, and summers as a human--for now. Six years after he saved Grace, Sam needs her help.

The book is told in the first-person, alternating between Grace and Sam's voices. Having both perspectives adds texture to the story.

If you liked the Twilight series, I think there's a very good chance you'll like this book and, presumably, the series, as well. Since Stiefvater is a better writter than Stephanie Meyer, you may even prefer Shiver.

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves. They were licking me, biting me, worrying at my body, pressing in. Their huddled bodies blocked what little heat the sun offered. Ice glistened on their ruffs and their breath made opaque shapes that hung in the air around us. The musky smell of their coats made me think of wet dog and burning leaves, pleasant and terrifying. Their tongues melted my skin; their careless teeth ripped at my sleeves and snagged through my hair, pushed against my collarbone, the pulse at my neck.

I could have screamed, but I didn't. I could have fought, but I didn't. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go gray above me.

One wolf prodded his nose into my hand and against my cheek, casting a shadow across my face. His yellow eyes looked into mine while the other wolves jerked me this way and that.

I held on to those eyes for as long as I could. Yellow. And, up close, flecked brilliantly with every shade of gold and hazel. I didn't want him to look away, and he didn't. I wanted to reach out and grab a hold of his ruff, but my hands stayed curled on my chest, my arms frozen to my body.

I couldn't remember what it felt like to be warm.

Then he was gone, and without him, the other wolves closed in, too close, suffocating. Something seemed to flutter in my chest.

There was no sun; there was no light. I was dying. I couldn't remember what the sky looked like.

But I didn't die. I was lost to a sea of cold, and then I was reborn into a world of warmth.

Wow1 I've never read a werewolf story. This one, "Shiver, sounds really good. I like the way he goes from werewolf to human. If I have to read about a werewolf, I would like to read about him in a YA story. Thanks for the excerpt and your great review.

i love this book i saw it in the shop and started reading it ,i imeadeatly got sucked into it i could've sat there all day reading the book in the shop ...i beggeed my mum to but it so she did i read the first book in a week and now im onto the second book ... i just cant wait till the third book comes out :D